Emmet Kirwan: ‘The best thing about Ireland is fair-mindedness. The worst? Putting bags of dog poo in a bush’
Actor and playwright on how his career path gave him the most focus and artistic satisfaction
Gate Theatre
Event guide: CMAT, Ash and the other best things to see in Ireland in the week ahead
November 29th-December 5th, 2025: The best music, theatre, art and more coming your way this week
A Christmas Carol review: Gate’s imaginative, deeply spooky take works new magic on Dickens classic
Is this Christmas Carol suitable for smaller children? The tiny me would have savoured the horror as much as the joyful denouement
The Gate’s Christmas Carol: ‘It’s a different proposition to panto. It has something you can dig your teeth into’
Taking on such a beloved festive text for a family-oriented show brings several challenges
The Gate’s new season: Eureka Day, An Ideal Husband and Poor top the bill
The Irish premiere of Jonathan Spector’s Tony Award-winning comedy among the 2026 season of productions
Poor, at Dublin Theatre Festival, is a show destined to keep returning and keep selling out
Dublin Theatre Festival 2025: Katriona O’Sullivan’s memoir becomes a crowd-pleasing play starring Aisling O’Mara and Hollie Lawlor
Katriona O’Sullivan on bringing Poor to the stage: ‘I’ve cried so many times, because it’s my life. It’s difficult to watch’
Poor is about to open at the Gate. Its author and playwright Sonya Kelly talk about adapting O’Sullivan’s bestselling memoir for the theatre
‘I loved every day I worked with Seán and will miss him’: tributes paid to beloved RTÉ presenter Seán Rocks
Donal Ryan, Elaine Feeney, Sinéad Gleeson and more pay tribute to the Arena broadcaster and presenter
Seán Rocks: Ireland has lost one of its great cultural champions
Late broadcaster’s easy wit and big-hearted spirit belied a lifelong devotion to our rich culture
The Pillowman review: Anthracite-black comedy. The most appalling crimes
Martin McDonagh’s play, in a disciplined if occasionally muted Gate production, makes discomfort the point
Dublin’s biggest theatre is staging its first production. Will its Little Shop of Horrors pull off a coup?
Bord Gáis Energy Theatre normally welcomes West End shows. It’s no small task to mount the venue’s first homegrown production, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s comedy-horror musical
The Pillowman, at the Gate Theatre: ‘Another level of dark, even for Martin McDonagh’
Fra Fee and Ryan Dylan, who star in the Dublin venue’s summer production, on cancel culture and comedy
On the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death, why is Irish theatre still so white?
Despite calls for cultural change, black representation on the Irish stage is still years behind, but there are signs of improvement
Lovesong review: An up-and-down marriage that goes to the very end
Theatre: The excellently paired Zara Devlin and Naoise Dunbar star in the Gate production of Abi Morgan’s absorbing play
Lovesong writer Abi Morgan: ‘I feel incredibly grateful to be here. It’s nearly seven years since Jacob collapsed’
Abi Morgan’s enduring play, which is opening at Dublin's Gate Theatre, tracks the ebb and flow of a long marriage
Paul Mescal to return to Irish stage in ‘taut, explosive, pressure cooker of a play’
Star will appear in Abbey and UK National Theatre coproduction of A Whistle in the Dark, by Tom Murphy
‘The Constitution will soon put women back in their place. Everything is fizzling away’: Sarah Jane Scaife on Youth’s the Season–?
Mary Manning wrote her first play in 1931, when she was 26. It’s astonishing how modern it can feel, says the director of the Abbey’s new production
Fionnula Flanagan: I remember the ‘No Irish or dogs’ signs. I didn’t want to live in a country that took that attitude towards me
Put off London, the actor went instead to the US, where she spent 50 years as one of Ireland’s most prominent screen presences
King Lear at the Gate review: Propulsive production doesn’t quite solve this tragedy’s age-old problems
As Shakespeare’s king, Conleth Hill is at his best when the storm is up and the brain befuddled. But this staging is short on big ideas
Lynne Parker: The Abbey does so much. But Ireland needs a national theatre for the 21st century
The future of Irish theatre looks bleak. It’s time to overhaul the way the sector works – including where the money goes, says Rough Magic’s artistic director
Game of Thrones actor Conleth Hill: ‘I was resistant for a long time. I’m not into wizards’
The `Shakespearean' HBO fantasy brought the Northern actor to a wider audience, and he's not complaining
The Guide: Alison Moyet, King Lear, Dublin film festival and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
February 15th-21st, 2025: The best movies, music, art and more coming your way this week
Lisa O’Neill at the Gate: Story-telling artist has never sounded better
Legacy and history weave through this singular performance, which resonates long after it ends
Abbey Theatre gets €9.5m in strategic funding from Arts Council, €1m more than last year
Almost €60 million spread across nationwide arts bodies
2025 on stage: 21 plays, operas and dance works to see over the next 12 months
From King Lear at the Gate to Dr Strangelove starring Steve Coogan, the coming year’s stage line-up includes jukebox musicals, period romcom and a play that probes the Irish Hospitals’ Sweepstake
The best theatre of 2024: Blessed are the risk-takers
Gambling on longer runs of unfamiliar work paid off in a gratifying number of cases. But Irish theatre still isn’t as inclusive as it should be
Mary Poppins, Peter Pan and Cinderella: 25 Christmas pantos and shows to see around Ireland this festive season
Jack and the Beanstalk, Mary Poppins and an adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s The Giggler Treatment are among the highlights
The Borrowers review: Gate’s Irish-set adaptation is solid good fun for the whole family
Mary Norton’s story will entertain children while adults can convince themselves of its literary status
Gate Theatre stages classic children’s stories for Christmas: see human beans and under-the-floorboards Borrowers
Charles Way’s adaptation of Mary Norton’s stories create atmosphere of family love, adventure and discovery
Colm Tóibín on poet Paul Durcan: ‘Beside the wildness, there is tenderness’
Durcan’s poems are risk-taking explorations of where tragedy and comedy meet in contemporary Ireland. A selection of his finest work is gathered in a book
Agreement: No play about the Good Friday negotiations has the right to be this much fun
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Owen McCafferty’s writing cuts through the Belfast peace talks’ seriousness to find levity in personal stakes and political bluster
Dancing at Lughnasa review: Gate’s triumphant, breathtakingly beautiful revival deserves groaning houses
Theatre: Caroline Byrne’s production, featuring Zara Devlin, Peter Gowen and Ruth McGill, makes both dream and reverie of Brian Friel’s indestructible play
Anne Friel on her late husband playwright Brian: ‘I was crazy about him. He was everything’
Rehearsals are underway for a new production of Dancing at Lughnasa at the Gate this summer, and a new book about the playwright was published this week
Circle Mirror Transformation: Wonderful presentation of the before and after of theatre at the Gate
Theatre: Róisín McBrinn has created a magnificent Irish production of Annie Baker’s sublime play
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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